REVIEW BAINBRIDGE ISLAND
WAKE UP: Spartans hope to leave others behind at state swim meet. A12
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2012 | Vol. 112, No. 46 | WWW.BAINBRIDGEREVIEW.COM | 75¢
Hard work pays off for McCloud in Supreme Court race
Rory Wilson defeats the Pacific Ocean
BY BRIAN KELLY Bainbridge Island Review
Rory Wilson photo
With a kite in the sky, Rory Wilson heads into the sunset. Wilson is seen below in San Diego shortly before his journey.
Teacher completes epic trans-Pacific journey BY RICHARD D. OXLEY Bainbridge Island Review
When Rory Wilson landed in Honolulu, Hawaii, it was the first time he had set foot on solid ground in more than six weeks. On Thursday, Nov. 1 the Bainbridge Island math teacher completed his trip across the Pacific Ocean using only his oars, a little wind and his wits. He was ready for a break. “I’m siting here right across from the beach, watching the waves break thinking they look really nice from a distance,” Wilson said. Journey’s across the Pacific have been attempted before, but none like Wilson’s, and none so fast. Pat Quesnel took the trip to Hawaii from San Francisco in 1976. It took him 111 days. Roz Savage also successfully braved the challenge in 2008, and made it in just over 99 days. Wilson’s trip took only 44 days.
Science and the sea Of course, Wilson didn’t rely solely on his oars to make the trip so fast. He brought along a little science. Wilson braved the open sea in KROS (for kite, rowing, ocean, solar), a vessel he designed and built. The
21-foot-long boat uses a combination of rowing and wind power — harnessed through kites — to cut through the waves. He used KROS to teach aspects of math in his classes at BHS, and students calculated how much energy his solar panels could produce and worked out their teacher’s dietary needs for the physically demanding journey. Wilson even devised a special food mix composed of nuts, seeds and dried fruit based on the students’ numbers. He also took along a chunky supply of peanut butter. “I think I’m going to take a break
from peanut butter for a while,” Wilson joked. “On most days (my caloric needs) were close to about 6,000 calories a day. I was pretty well on with my estimates.” “I probably dropped five pounds in the first week,” he added. His weight hit an even keel after a while, however. “I stabilized for a while, and the last week I dropped a few more. I still had a good energy level.” Wilson trained at Island Fitness before his trip, but he proved to be more efficient at sea than he initially thought. “When I was training at Island Fitness, I would do one hour sets, then take a short break,” Wilson said. “And I’d do that for three, four or even six hours.”
Going the distance Not only was it a physical challenge, it was mentally taxing as well. Wilson was alone, spending up to 18 hours rowing. He said the extreme rowing shifts were the only way he could make the distances he did. At times he would rest for 30 minutes and get back to work. Sleep was frequently sacrificed for distance. SEE OCEAN, A2
Sheryl Gordon McCloud will be Bainbridge Island’s next Washington Supreme Court Justice. McCloud was leading Richard B. Saunders, a former justice of the high court, in the race for Position 9. She had 54 percent of the vote after the tally late Wednesday, or 946,581 votes out of 1.7 million votes cast in the race. Saunders had 45 percent of the vote. “I’m pretty pleased,” McCloud said after the first election results were announced late Tuesday. “Considering where we came from as the underdog and the only candidate in the race who had not been a politician before, I’m just so thrilled that the hard work
Sheryl Gordon McCloud paid off,” she said. McCloud currently works for her own law firm, based in Seattle. Justice Charles K. Wiggins, also of Bainbridge Island, is currently a justice on the nine-member court. He was elected in 2010. In Kitsap County, McCloud pulled in 56 percent of the vote to Sanders’ 43 percent.
Bainbridge goes big for Pres. Obama BY BRIAN KELLY Bainbridge Island Review
Kitsap County voters have once again said they want Barack Obama to be president, and Bainbridge Island voters are again leading the county in support at the ballot box. President Obama was leading former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney in Washington state, and Kitsap County, in unofficial vote tallies this week. Obama had picked up 54 percent of the vote, while Romney had 43 percent, in Kitsap County. In the 2008 presidential election, Obama won 54 percent of the vote against U.S. Sen. John McCain, who finished with
More election coverage inside Turn to pages A10, A19-A21 for more coverage of the 2012 General Election. 42 percent of all ballots cast in the county. Across Washington state, Obama was in front with 55 percent of the vote this week to Romney’s 42 percent, with 2.1 million votes counted. Bainbridge once again was in the president’s corner. Mirroring his first presidential election, Obama again won every precinct on SEE BAINBRIDGE, A10